In Love
by Cardboard Bike
Summary: A drabble-type thing looking at the changing relationship of team seven, featuring a returned Sasuke.


_Warning for yaoi, though not graphic (by my usual standards). I would love constructive criticism on this, it's really not 100 percent what I want it to be._

**-o-o-o-**

Naruto has known for a while that he's not 'in love' with Sakura; he probably never was. He chases her anyway, still, the shouted _Sah-kura-chan!_ too ingrained to bear changing. Because if this changes, if he fails to continue to hurry after that always-just-out-of-his-grasp mop of pink hair, then he's admitting that everything is changing. And if everything changes he will have to acknowledge the fact that Team Seven will never go back to the way they were.

Sakura knows that she is no longer 'in love' with Sasuke. She's not even fascinated by him any more; she hates him. Hates him for what he's done to her, to Naruto, to the village. She has hardened her heart once and for all, and Naruto's preaching about everlasting forgiveness makes her want to rip every goddamn precious yellow hair out of his head. But only because she cares about him more than she'd like to admit, and the reason she cries these days is the desperate, hopeful and totally miserable look his usually bright eyes hold as he trails ever faithfully after her.

When Sasuke returns, silent and angry, his eyes flashing loathing at everyone who dares look at him, Sakura realizes she doesn't hate him after all. She doesn't love him, but a little part of her heart cries out for the little boy who lost his family only to lose his soul as well. Sasuke scorns her tears.

Naruto yells and screams and does other Naruto-like things, which Sasuke ignores as easily as he ignores the chakra-blocking cuff sealed around his ankle. He's not listening, and Naruto knows he's not listening.

_You broke Sakura-chan's heart, Teme_, the blond hisses as he throws Sasuke bodily against a wall. Sasuke makes no move to defend himself. He can see that Naruto has gotten stronger and he wants to know how much, how much it will take to make him snap, to break him.

Sasuke tilts his head upwards, baring his throat mockingly. _You don't even know what you want, Dobe_, he says and presses his cold lips against the blond's, his eyes open and watching the inevitable widening of bright blue.

He's not gentle, biting and hissing and licking and probing to steal the sunshine he knows hides inside of Naruto, jinchūriki or not. Even if he never admits it to himself he's jealous, and he wants to take away that ever-present smile that unwittingly mocks him. He wants it for himself.

Naruto's eyes slide shut anyway and he doesn't fight it when he ends up the one against the wall, Sasuke's tongue in his mouth and Sasuke's hands down his pants, his mouth making noises that no longer come out as words but as unintelligible moans and gasps.

Sasuke's smirking, always smirking and always in control as he fumbles with his belt and pushes his own pants down over his hips, kissing sloppily as he finally performs the one action that will make Naruto howl in submission. The blond doesn't seem to realize this is just another way to get to him, to chip away another piece of his heart, and he calls Sasuke's name as the raven-haired boy pounds into him, holding his wrists so tight to the wall that he'll see bruises in the morning.

It's not pretty, fraught with wired and sparking emotion that neither have the words or depth of mind to analyse properly, and ends quickly in an unsatisfactorily spurt of white.

Sasuke doesn't want to believe that this is what he has craved all this time, to hear his name fall off the Dobe's lips in this way, so he straightens his clothes and turns away. 'In love' is not a phrase usually associated with the Uchiha and he will not be the first to use it. He digs the blade of his katana hard into the dirt as he leaves.

Naruto barely registers when Sasuke walks away as if nothing has happened, sinking down on the cold floor, hurting and wondering why he'd let his Teme do that to him. He's not stupid and he's not weak, but not even Iruka-sensei has had the time to sit down and explain anything like this to him. He knows, deep down, that Sasuke will be back, that everything will be the same, and that he won't do a thing to stop it. He may be a little 'in love' with Sasuke, he realizes, and hates himself for it.


End file.
